Thursday, February 04, 2010

I attended an excellent presentation on “Searching for Balance: the Social and Economic Context for the Governor’s proposed 2010-11 Budget.” today offered by the California budget project. Readers will recognize some key issues for this year’s budget as developed in prior posts on the economic crisis.

California and the government are facing new challenges some of which imperil the health and well being of families in the state. The state has budget shortfalls which will continue for years. The governor’s approach to the budget problems is to pit one group against the other; poor people, the disabled, schools, health care. The weak labor market will take years to improve.

Here is an illustrative graphic of the important information for us all. (Click on the image to make it larger). In future posts I will refer to some of the other information. The governor has proposed draconian cuts to Healthy Families, Medi cal, In home supportive services, and k-12 education among others.

It is essential that we come to understand the economic crisis and the options available to us. The government is stalemated by the 2/3 rule. We need to figure out how to respond.